Sept 14, Bruges and Ghent

By patmarkovich201552 minutes ago

Another great day in Belgium! After breakfast, we decided to walk into the Bruges centre to visit the 2 places we missed yesterday. They were the Gruuthusemuseum and the Church of our Lady.

At the Gruuthusemuseum we saw the palatial dwelling of an exceptional rich merchant. While not set up as a home, we walked through the rooms and saw the incredible art, collectibles, weights and measures for trade , lace and even a private room that overlooked the church altar for their private Sunday worship.

As we entered we were greeted with the first of a number of craved stone fireplaces. Incredible detail for the 15th century!

This hand carved creche was made from a single piece of hardwood. The depth and detail was extraordinary.

The tapestry above depicts the riches that came from afar that made Bruges so rich in trade. From cacao beans to tobacco to maze to silks this all brought great wealth to the merchants that knew how to market these goods.

The private prayer chapel that connected to the Church of our Lady. it would have been far more opulent in the 15th century

It was soon over and time to move onto the church. The Church of our Lady was very well looked after by the city’s merchant class. So much grandeur.

Here we can see the handcarved window of the Gruuthuse, looking into the church

The most precious treasure however, was the Madonna and child statue by Michelangelo. This was gifted to the church by a wealthy merchant, and is the only statue of this artist to be transported out of Italy in his lifetime.

It was now time to head back to the car and head off to Ghent. Just a short 30-40 minute drive and we were in the heart of Ghent. Once we parked the car, we walked towards St Bavo’s cathedral.

It was close to lunch time once we arrived so we wandered in the Korenmarkt to see if we could grab a quick bite.. Who knew we could get Hawaiian Poke bowls in the middle of Ghent!

Absolutely delicious Poke bowls had by all!

Across from the restaurant and framing one end of the square was the Church of St Nicholas, patron saint of sailors.

From St Nickolas church saw the new Stadshal, built to represent the old town architecture, but it’s been received with very mixed reviews.

You can see the modern architecture representing the fish market and the roof lines of the medieval town. While very uncharacteristic for this spot, it did have a piano set up under cover and we heard a couple of virtuoso’s perform impromptu selections… really quite lovely.

From here we headed to St Bavo’s cathedral, home of the famous altar piece by Jan Van Eyck and his brother Hubert, entitled Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. This church also holds an immense altar painting by Rubens and an incredibly carved pulpit.

But the main attraction was the Van Eyck alter piece. To see this, Dan and I first took a guided tour through the crypt with the help of AR (augmented reality). This tour gave us an in depth look at the development of the altar piece, its history and its many departures from this cathedral (stolen, confiscated, sold… the list goes on) after all, this was painted in the 1400’s, or about 600 plus years ago!

Dan rocking his AR gear. I must say, this was one of the best tours we taken!

The gleaming colours have been meticulously restored. When the art historians were working on the piece, they found that the colours that the Van Eyck brothers used were far brighter than those added afterwards ( subsequent restorations) as well as the yellowing from the varnish.

The brilliance of the colours together with the human like eyes of the lamb of God give this an otherworldly aura. The details were amazing as well…as many as 40 representative flowers were found hidden throughout his painting. The detail is extraordinary.

Look at the hand carving detail of this Altar piece!

When we were finished at St Bavo’s cathedral we headed back to Bruges. One thing we wanted to see was a bridge honouring Canadians who rebuilt this bridge after liberating the Bruges citizens in 1944. The guide at the ticket booth at the Gruuthusemuseum told us about this when he saw our Canadian pins. They celebrated the liberation on September 12th and we caught a photo of the fresh flowers that were laid in remeberence.

There are buffalos on each side of the CanadaBrug to honour the Canadians who fought and rebuilt this important connection for the city.

We were soon back at our B and B and decided that one experience we haven’t tried is going to an authentic Beer Tavern and sampling some of the world’s greatest beers! We ended up in Cafe Terraesje where we discovered a new favourite beer, St Bernardus! Yummy!

The deliciously dark and sumptuous beer was just what we needed after a long day of travel.

Once we had a relaxing evening with beer and tapas, we headed back to our lodging for the night. Lo and behold, as we walked, we came across a small parkette inbetween canals that actually pastures sheep!

We indeed made it back to our B and B in one piece and ready for a relaxing dram and a touch of chocolate (oh, didn’t I mention I got some chocolate in Ghent?).

A lovely cap to a wonderful day. Tomorrow we will take our time enjoying our last day in Bruges… maybe buy some chocolate and some beer, who knows. Until then!